In Baker’s article, BioAmber’s Chief Commercial Officer, Babette Pettersen was cited as saying, “The bio-based technologies are playing out right now and pilot plants are being scaled up to commercial capacities – requiring hundreds of millions of dollars in investment. This is the so-called ‘valley of death’ for technology start-ups, which they have to traverse to become successful producers. It’s the Audis and P&G’s of this world that will pull demand through...”

“We need to find out whether our customers and our customers’ customers have a need and interest and we need to play a role to pull things along the chain.”

She continues, “Venture capital and private equity have pulled back, public markets have closed and governments are not there to bridge the gap, except for a few countries like Canada and Malaysia.”

Pettersen explains that government support is required to create the right conditions for stimulating bio-industry interest and demand. “Governments need to step up and provide loans and other forms of funding assistance to help attract investment in commercial-scale projects that have proven they can economically convert agriculture into value-added products, reduce harmful emissions and create manufacturing jobs, especially in Europe.”